Magic Balkan Box

After three months of teaching and studying in the Western Balkans, we have managed to get used to our second home at Pacific Northwest.  We also are about to start a new project regarding our Western Balkans. In order to honor our new Balkan explorers we are creating "Magic Balkan Box" - Net version.  On-ground version will be available to our new students in the classrooms of University of Washington.

Magic Balkan Box is a list of online resources available in English that have a special scent.  We'll keep filing in this box with other treats when we stumble upon or find them on our path towards and from the Western Balkans.

Magic Balkan Box

Norman Wacker' s Latest Piece on Serbian prose
TransCulture-November

“Balkanize” verb
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/balkanize

Balkan Peninsula

http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/europe/balkans.htm

SPiT in Leipzig Book Fair 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhCYdFDzfGE

Deutsche Welle – 20 Years of Fall of Yugoslavia, 2010

http://www.dw.de/flashes/20jahre_yugo/en_yugo/en_20years_popup.htm

TransCulture on National Identies in B&H
http://www.transconflict.com/programmes/transculture/transculture-balkans/our-peoples-my-identities/ 

Trans Culture on Sarajevo After 20 Years
http://www.transconflict.com/2012/02/sarajevo-beyond-the-siege-022/

Institute of War and Peace Reporting on Bosnia 20 Year Later
http://iwpr.net/focus/bosnia-20-years-later

Institute for War and Peace Reporting on Two Different School Curricula

http://iwpr.net/report-news/under-one-roof

EU Enlargement From 6 to 27 Countries
http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/policy/from-6-to-27-members/index_en.htm

EC Next Steps For EU Enlargement
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-12-1087_en.htm

First Annual Balkan Nigth Northwest - March 10 Capitol Hill

Boston has Balkan Night, San Francisco has Kolo Festival, New York has Golden Festival… now Seattle is getting in on the act with the first annual Balkan Night Northwest! There are over a dozen bands lined up, two stages, food catered by the Croatian ladies, full bar- it ...will be a great night of music and dancing featuring local Seattle musicians from Serbia, Croatia, Greece, Bosnia, and more! Spread the word, invite your friends and more info to come soon! Sponsored by Seattle Balkan Dancers.

 http://www.facebook.com/events/166213933478313/

February and March 2012 in the Western Balkans

To start this post with "It has been a very hectic time..." would be boring.  "Boring,but true." February and first days of March have been very hectic months in the Western Balkans.

As for Serbia, EU leaders granted Serbia "candidate" status.  This is a milestone in the EU accession process for Serbia.  Read more EU Leaders Grant Serbia "Candidate' Status. 

Croatian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Vesna Pusić met 19 February 2012 with United States Deputy Secretary of State William Burns.Read more Pusic and Burns Met 

And Aleksandar Hemon published one more personal story, this time on his dog Mek (Mac) and how Mek helped his family through the Bosnian war.Hemon

ICTY is working very to close some of its most notorious cases (Seselj, Karadzic, Simatovic).  Read the latest Court update on ICTY Weekly Update.

January 2012 in the Western Balkans

It has been a very hectic time in the region of the Western Balkans.  Usually winter months are pretty quiet and full of various religious and family holidays.  However, this year a lot has happened.
Let's list the most relevant to our mission - mission of understanding the Balkans in the context of European framework.

On January 22nd 66% of Croatian citizen voted "for" accession to the EU on the national referendum.Read more about current Croatia - EU relations by following this link EuropeanCommisionOnEnlargment

On February 1st  the ratification of Croatia's EU accession treaty by the Parliament of the Slovakian Republic has happened.  Slovakia was the first EU member which ratified Croatia’s accession treaty.

Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Crotia Vesna Pusić attended  on  January 31,2012 in Belgrade an informal meeting of foreign ministers of the South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP), held as part of Serbia’s presiding of this regional initiative. Read more about it:
http://www.mfa.hr/custompages/static/hrv/templates/_frt_Priopcenja_en.asp?id=7236
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/region-article.php?yyyy=2012&mm=02&dd=01&nav_id=78565

And Aleksandar Hemon, a famous Bosnian-American fiction writer, wrote and published a new story about Bosnia and Hercegovina - National Subjects - Podanici naroda.  One more great piece of writing and analysis of situation in Bosnia.

And last, but not the least important news comes from Melbourne, Australia. Novak Djokovic, Serbian tennis player, wore down Rafael Nadal in the longest Grand Slam singles final in the history of professional tennis.  Read more
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/society-article.php?yyyy=2012&mm=01&dd=29&nav_id=78533
or
http://www.npr.org/2012/01/29/146053852/djokovic-wins-australian-open-in-longest-final

P.S. Our posting this week included articles on Vesna Pusic, present Foreign Minister of Croatia, and a former guest lecturer to our program.  We also have two links from B92, an independent media house, whose director and co-founder, Sasa Mirkovic, has also been a frequent guest lecturer to our program.

More on Music from the Balkans in - Seattle

Not so many things related to the great region of the Balkans are happening in Seattle.  Not to mentioned that not so many great things related to the region are happening.  However, on December 10 at 7:00 pm - the Dunava women chorus will have their concert at MOHAI center,2700 24th Avenue East, Seattle. 

So if you have a moment to spare -  enjoy the Vocal Harmonies from the Balkans - Dunava.
Dunava - Vocal Harmonies from the Balkans

More on Literature

Norman Wacker recently wrote an essay on former Yugoslavian literature - "Kiš, Selenić, Ugrešić and after – archivists of Yugoslavia disappeared" which was published in Transconflict.

The essay begins:

"Deleuze and Guattari, in ‘Notes Towards a Minor Literature’, sketch the problem of the writer with European-wide ambitions writing in a minor language and in a minor literary tradition, whether little known, yet-to-be formed or slated for extinction. A non-observant Jew, assimilated to the hegemonic German-speaking elite of Prague, Kafka had nonetheless grown up in a Yiddish speaking Jewish quarter, was reared by Czech speaking nurses, read law in German, witnessed the ascent of Czech as the official language of Czechoslovakia and late in life studied Hebrew in anticipation of emigration to Israel. He wrote copious business correspondence in Czech during his hours as an insurance executive, while crafting experimental modernist fiction in German during the night and championed touring Yiddish language theatricals. The dilemma Kafka would have faced at the outset was, in what language to write and with what consequences for his aspirations to be a “great” or“world” writer, leaving a mark on his times and his culture?"

Want to learn more - here is the link Kis-Selenic-Ugresic

SPiT@UW

On November 16th, the Serbian Prose in Translation series, published by Geopoetika of Belgrade, Serbia, was celebrated during an event in the Allen Library Auditorium at the University of Washington where all twelve titles will be added on November 30th to the collection during a short ceremony with  Michael Biggins UW Slavic Collection Head Librarian and translator of numerous literary works from the region.

We had the good fortune to learn of the Serbian Prose in Translation series in 2010 and were able to meet with its Editor Vladislav Bajac who gave a guest lecture this year to our students while we were in Belgrade this last Summer.  We value these 12 books and other recent literature from the former YU for the way they make visible the continued vitality of a "minor" language literature to an world-wide English speaking readership.  The event included a short audio visual presentation from Vladislav including a short reading from  his novel Hammam Balkania.

Here is the link for official SPiT site Official SPiT

And if you would like to learn more about the promotion of the series at the Leipzig Book Fair

YouTubeSPiT@Leipzig Book Fair